Microsoft Hotmail Officially Becomes Outlook.com

Out with the old and in with the new, as Microsoft closes it’s doors on Hotmail. Dropping its well known email provider after establishing its user base for 15 years may sound like risky business, but Microsoft is planning to make it up to it’s faithful Hotmail users as it leads them through a painless transition to Outlook.com.

More Privacy, Less Junk

Some of the best aspects of Outlook are the privacy tools and junk mail filters. Though it may initially take a little time to familiarize yourself with the  tools and personalize your privacy settings, Outlook will begin to automatically sort your mail into it’s known category. For example, mail from contacts would be auto-sent to a contacts folder, and notifications from a Facebook friends be sent its own separate folder, creating a tidy and easily maneuverable page.

Also, Outlook won’t share your information or read your emails and then bombard you with corresponding ads and junk mail. Instead of adding to the clutter, Outlook provides the user with a tool called Sweep, which will weed out unwanted emails like unread newsletters and daily deals, or even those dreaded messages from the mother-in-law. It’s up to you, as you can customize this tool to clean out whatever you don’t want to read.

Email that Connects with Social Networks

Outlook does more than just receive Facebook notifications. Send messages, post on walls, and view profile photos, updates and tweets all from your inbox. Currently the site is linked with Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Linkedin, and will soon add Skype to that list. Outlook wants you to connect with your people, and is the first email provider to have this type of connection with social networks.

Free Cloud Storage and Office Apps

Now you can work right from your inbox. Outlook equips all it’s users with built-in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint web apps. Add to all of that Outlook’s 7GB of cloud storage on SkyDrive and you have a pretty impressive new email.

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